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A capella for the 21st century

Inspiration comes in many forms. Another day I’d like to talk about the many small things, found in curious places, that give me pause for thought or make me sit up and think. I spend a lot of time looking at the sky for instance. My flat is quite high up and the angle of the windows means that when you’re sat down or when I’m lying in bed, all I can see are  the clouds, ever changing or the quality of the light and how it changes with the seasons. The weather feels close. But more of that anon.

In the midst of trying of working with the amazing musicians who’ll be recording with me in December, while we get arrangements together and talk about sounds, I’m also listening to lots of music that’s coming out now. Not so much to take things from it as to firmly ground myself in the context of my musical surroundings. Into this landscape this album will come.

Undoubtedly Bon Iver has a huge part to play in shaping those hills, and with his new album, has brought together a lot of different sound worlds into one fractured, at times jarring, but never less than beautiful whole. This song in particular encapsulates the best of it- a gospel a capella ballad – strange and raw – all processed through a harmonically filtered vocoder. Man and machine meet. This could only have been released now. You should listen to it.